Launched 7900GTX and 7900GT video cards
Graphics giant nVidia announced three new graphics chips today, the 7900 GTX, the 7900 GT, and the 7600 GT. The company expects its partners to begin shipping graphics boards based on the new chips this week.
The 7900 chips will replace nVidia's 7800 GTX and 7800 GT processors. Initial PCW tests using reference boards show the 7800 GT largely outperforming existing boards, while the 7900 GTX yielded mixed results. Most notable was the 7600 GT card's significantly faster performance over existing boards on most tests.
All three chips were produced under a new 90-nanometer manufacturing process, which leads to smaller, more-efficient chips than those created under the older 110-nanometer process.
At launch every 7900GTX you see will be based on the nVidia Reference Design. Later manufacturers will introduce some of their own unique designs to the 7900GTX market. For that reason we didn't try to get pictures of every 7900GTX or 7900GT we saw.
The 7900GTX is a dual-slot design with 512MB of memory. In fact, it is surprisingly the only 512MB part in the new nVidia lineup. The cooling design is just like the earlier, and impossible to find, 7800GTX 512MB. Basically the 7900GTX is a die-shrink to 90nm with the clocks increased to 650/1600MHz.
The 7900GT is a very interesting card - single slot, 256MB memory, the same 24 pipes, but 450/1320MHz clocks instead of the 650/1600MHz of the 7900GTX. We grabbed some images of the front and back of the 7900GT, and you can find more information about the 7900GT in our launch review.
Every major nVidia partner will be showing the 7900GTX and GT at Cebit, which feature a die-shrink to 90nm, which allows faster clock speeds than the 7800 series. One thing we don't yet know Is if the 7800GTX will remain a real part, or whether it will disappear into "limited availability" as the 7800GTX 512MB did. We should all have answers to this question soon enough.
The launch is expected to be a hard launch, like recent nVidia and ATI introductions, with product available for sale on launch day. MSI and Gigabyte are two tier 1 manufacturers that will definitely have 7900GTX/GT cards available at launch. The usual nVidia partners will also be stocked up for 7900GTX/GT sales.
With ATI's recent price cuts a very interesting battle is shaping up at the $299 price point. The ATI X1800XT 256MB is now $299, which is the same price as the nVidia 7900GT. The head-to-head performance battle between these two should definitely have some performance sparks flying.
Biostar Launches 7900/7600 cards
Biostar has become the first company to release the new range of Nvidia based graphics cards. It just announced Geforce 7900 GTX, Geforce 7900 GT and its 7600 GT designs. 
Biostar's 7900 GTX will be clocked at default 650MHz core and 1600MHz GDDR3 memory. IT has 512MB of-256 bit memory and comes with a the 2006 Fifa limited cup game plus overclocking software and bunch of cables of course. The card is branded as VP7903GX52 and it scores roughly 8600 in 3Dmark06.
Biostar's 7900 GT is clocked to 450MHz core and 1320MHz GDDR 3 memory. The company claims that it card supports 256MB of 256-bit memory. The card produces a score of roughly 8000 in 3Dmark05.
Biostar 7600 GT card is clocked at 560MHz core and 1400MHz memory. The card uses 256MB of 128-bit memory.
The cards should be available by the end of the month and we should see them at Cebit later today.
Asus displays GPU cooling solutions
Two new graphics cards stood out at the ASUS booth, not the latest and greatest, but innovative engineering on a Radeon 1300 and a NVidia 6600. Strangely enough they both involve cooling.
The one that jumps out at you is the Radeon 1300PRO/Silent, a very different fanless cooler. You would not intuitively think that two heat sinks at 90 degrees to each other can be effective at cooling, but they are doing it, so there must be some merit. It is much more effective at catching your eye, take a look, there is nothing else like it out there.
Next up is the extremely odd ASUS EN6600 TOP SILENT, this card is backwards. Look at the pictures, everything is mounted on the 'wrong' side of the board for added cooling. Truly weird. They claim no noise, and it should be because there is no fan, 30 degrees cooler, and 40% faster than a normal GF6600. If those claims hold up, it is a big win.
ASUS is not afraid to put the engineering effort in to make a really different and standout card. They are also not afraid to make a really odd looking card if it works better. We need more thinking like this, the generic rebadging of reference designs is getting old.
AM2 from FOXCONN
Its AM2, but not as we know it, captain....
Once the board was up and running, the AM2 ticked over quite happily, running dual NVIDIA cards as our pictures show… but although AM2 is new and exciting, there was something else about this board that makes it stand out from the crowd.
Ok, so that’s pretty much a standard shot of a motherboard running SLI that we’ve all seen before… so how about a shot of the bare board to give you a clue as to why this one is different.
Ok, so here’s the 975 2.0 Digital PWM without any gubbins plugged in. See anything different yet? A clue would be in that FOXCONN intend this motherboard to power systems that will rarely be turned off or left on for long periods of time, say for something like a media center or perhaps you’re just a lazy bugger who likes to leave his PC on a lot… got it yet?
Right then, here’s a close up of the socket and surrounding area, this is where the big difference is…
Yep, that’s the thing, there’s no dirty great liquid filled capacitors to pop and ooze gunge all over your nice shiny mainboard. FOXCONN have gone for a digital VRM solution, letting you run your PC for longer, giving a more reliable supply of juice to the CPU.
And once the VRMs are doing their job, they need a bit of cooling, helpfully supplied by this natty black heatsink, as shown on the running model.
Shuttle Chases Mac Mini With Smaller PC
The upcoming X100 will feature Intel's Core Duo chips and Windows XP.
Shuttle a Taiwanese PC maker well known for its small form-factor PCs, will unveil this week a new, smaller computer, a company executive confirmed Thursday.
The X100 was largely developed in response to a growing number of small PCs on offer from other companies, including Apple Computer's Mac Mini.
System Specs:
- Intel Core Duo mobile processor
- 512MB of DDR2 DRAM
- 250GB hard drive
- Measures 2.1 inches by 8.3 inches by 11.8 inches(slightly larger than the Mac Mini)
Pricing of the X100 has not been finalized, Wang said. Initial production of the system is expected to start in early April, with volume production to start soon after, he said.
NVIDIA Officially Announces SLI Technology for the Notebook Segement
We've all known for quite some time that it was coming, but now it's official
We've brought you news over the past month of notebooks featuring NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX GPUs in an SLI configuration from Eurocom and WidowPC. NVIDIA has now officially announced what we have all known about for quite some time now.
"Desktop PCs featuring SLI technology still had the performance edge. They needed that edge because of the higher resolutions desktop monitors," said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GPU business unit at NVIDIA. "Now gaming notebooks with extreme HD resolutions of up to 1920×1200 are here, requiring more processing power so gamers can still turn up their 3D quality settings. SLI technology delivers that powerâ€â€creating high-performance notebooks for gamers on the go."
Partners geared up and ready to ship SLI laptops today include Sager, Alienware, Velocity Micro, and Voodoo as well as partners ABS, AJP, BioHazard, Cybersystem, Evesham, Gericom, Hypersonic, Multirama, Olidata, Plaisio, ProStar, rockdirect, Rombus, Savrow, Vicious PC, XS2, and Wortmann.
LG Philips LCD Announces 100" LCD TV
Just when you thought LCD sizes wouldn't go any higher, LPL uses a whole 7G substrate for a staggering 100" panel
LG Philips LCD (LPL), the number one or number two LCD manufacturer in the world (depending on which particular week of the year it is), just announce the company's first 100" LCD. LPL claims a 5ms response time and 3000:1 contrast ratio. Like most LPL panels, the display uses a Super IPS panel mode.
Typically a P7 glass substrate is cut into eight 42" displays. The fact that LPL did not make a big hoopla of this suggests the company simply took a 7G substrate (approximately 76" by 89") and cut the shorter size down a bit to create the proper aspect ratio -- see here for more details on how LPL cuts up LCD substrates.
LPL's 100" LCD display claims 6.2M pixels -- approximately a resolution of 3160x1980 -- though the company is not disclosing the exact resolution.
Given the fact that the LPL hacks off 20% of a full 7G substrate to create the new 100" behemoth, a relatively large waste of glass, don't expect to see many of these displays outside of trade shows. They company also would not disclose how much the display weighs.
AOpen CoreDuo 975x & Mini
AOpen is another tier 2 manufacturer that decided their key to survive and flourish was to specialize in the motherboard market. As a result AOpen has had several desktop motherboards for the Pentium M and now the Yonah/CoreDuo mobile processors that are much like the upcoming Conroe.
AOpen's latest desktop board for mobile is based on the recent Intel 975X chipset.
This desktop board for CoreDuo is particularly intriguing in that it offers all the top-of-the-line 975x bells and whistles - including support for ATI Crossfire.
AOpen is also showing their second generation Mini PC.
As you can see in the internals photo, AOpen has been hard at work finding ways to deal with the heat that can become a significant problem in tiny enclosures like the miniPC.
Transcend
Transcend is well-known in the Asian market, but is probably best recognized in the US Market as a manufacturer of flash memory.
Transcend is now active in the US Market with their full product line, which is on display at Cebit. This ranges from conventional memory products like DDR and DDR2 dimms to a complete line of USB JefFlash products and MP3 players sold under the T. Sonic name.
Broadwater Almost Invisible
With Intel so active in promoting Conroe at IDF, we really thougth everyone would have a Broadwater, or Intel 965, motherboard for display at Cebit. In fact there were very few Broadwater boards being shown by any vendors. This is very surprising for a chipset due to launch this quarter.
Abit was the only vendor with an Intel 965 that was photo-ready during our pre-Cebit visit to Taiwan.
The Abit AW8D-Max revives the Abit MAX name for a top-of-the-line enthusiast board. This should definitely fit a board designed to house the upcoming Conroe processor.
Samsung Shows 10-Megapixel Camera Phone
Handset also includes a music player, a video recorder, and a document viewer.
Samsung Electronics is planning to launch in the second quarter a cell phone that boasts a 10-megapixel-resolution digital camera, the company said at the CeBIT technology show on Thursday.
The SCH-B600 is due to go on sale in South Korea in the second quarter of this year and continues a line of cell phones with high-resolution cameras from Samsung. The company launched a 5-megapixel camera phone in October 2004, a 7-megapixel phone in July 2005, and an 8-megapixel model in November 2005.
From one side the handset looks like a conventional cell phone; from the other, it looks like a digital still camera, with an autofocus 3X optical zoom lens and a flash.
Images and other data can be stored to the handset's internal memory or on MMCmicro memory cards. Other features include MPEG-4 video recording; a music player that plays MP3, AAC, and AAC+ files; a TV output port; a document viewer; and Bluetooth and Pictbridge printing.
No price was provided for the telephone, which is compatible with the Code Division Multiple Access 1X EvDO standard.
Another New Phone
The SGH-i130 is based on the Windows Mobile operating system and packs an 8GB hard drive.
The built-in music player supports the MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and Ogg music file formats and has dual speakers, an amplifier, and a Bluetooth stereo link. Other features include a 2-megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth printing, and a video output connector. It will be available in Europe during the second quarter of this year, Samsung said.
Novell Launches Next-Generation Linux Desktop
OS is finally "good enough" to replace Windows, company says.
Novell has introduced the next version of its desktop Linux OS, a release the company hopes will begin a "viral" migration from Windows in the next several years, said Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Novell.
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10), launched at the CeBIT show here, is the first version of Novell's desktop Linux that is "good enough" for enterprises to replace Microsoft's Windows OS in more than just limited deployments, Jaffe said.
"Our new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now meets the needs of the basic office worker," he said.
Jaffe acknowledged that desktop Linux has barely made a dent in the enterprise, though a migration from Windows to Linux on enterprise desktops has been predicted for years. However, he said that he expects enterprise pilots of SLED 10 to begin in earnest in late 2006.
Then, once companies realize how painlessly they can integrate a Linux desktop into an enterprise dominated by Windows, the trend to use Linux alongside or to replace Windows in the enterprise should catch fire by 2008, Jaffe said.
"I don't think mass migrations will come until 2007, maybe 2008, but this is the year to really prepare for it," he said.
Nat Friedman, vice president of Linux desktop engineering for Novell, demonstrated SLED 10, which appears to share many of the same features as early test versions of Windows Vista. Vista is the next major upgrade to Microsoft's Windows OS and is expected to ship at the end of the year.
SLED 10 will be available by late September, Jaffe said.
Fujitsu Shows Smaller, Faster Palm Vein Sensor
Biometric security device is also cheaper than the company's previous model.
Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories have developed a new model of their palm vein security sensor that is smaller, faster, and cheaper than the previous model, they said Thursday. The new sensor conforms to an industry-standard application programming interface and will be available globally later this year.
The palm vein system relies on an image sensor similar to that in a digital still camera. It takes a picture of the palm of a user's hand, and the image is then matched against a database as a means of verification. The camera works in the near-infrared range so it can detect the veins present under the skin; a proprietary algorithm is used to help confirm identity. The system takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins, their position, and the points at which they cross.
This makes for a biometric system that offers a higher level of security than competing technologies including voice print, facial recognition, fingerprint recognition, and iris scan, according to Fujitsu.
The technology has been adopted by more than 40 Japanese banks, including one national bank, as a way to authenticate customers at automated cash machines. It is also used in access-control systems at some companies. It has yet to find the same level of adoption overseas, however. Fujitsu hopes this will change with the launch of the new sensor, said Ichiro Hirose, president and chief executive officer of Fujitsu Europe.
End OF LCD Response Time
They both have a common objective: to have the same reaction time as CRT. If highly sophisticated machines measure very low response time there is still some afterglow effect on TFT monitors. There is a second problem that we very regularly noted during the past five years. It isn't because a monitor is faster than another between greys or from white to black that it will indeed have a faster reaction time in games. After two years, the reign of response time measure between greys is over. G2G Samsung and AU Optronics agreed that it was time for another model. This one doesn't fit anymore. It no longer reflects the reality and is particularly unsuited to their new technologies.
They two have tried to get back to how CRT worked and adapt it to LCD. Samsung went for the image frequency and AU Optronics took it inspiration from CRT scanning not to adjust the monitor afterglow effect but the one generated by our eyes.
Samsung LCD : MPA technology
Samsung has oriented their research on the image rate. It is of 60 fps (60 Hz refreshing rate) for TFT as compared to 85 to 120 fps for CRT. The afterglow mainly comes, according to them, from this gap. The MPA technology introduced in future PVA monitors series (TN aren't concerned for now) consist in intercalating one image between two to artificially double the image rate and to reach 120 images per second. Each image added isn't the same as the previous one or the next one but an image calculated, interpolated, and intermediate.
AU Optronics / BenQ : BFI technology
AU Optronics' approach is much different. CRT monitors images are drawn by a ray that scans the monitor. Each dot is illuminated during a very short amount of time. For a CRT monitor at 85 Hz each pixel is only illuminated during 12ms approximately before being in the dark for the rest of the time. In facts the dots keeps the brightness because of the panel phosphorus persistence. This brightness nevertheless declines in time and sometime reach zero before that the ray draws the next dot. This variation has two consequences: the CRT brightness is much more moderated that the LCD and it cleans our eye that is naturally subject to image persistence.
